Thursday, February 7, 2013

Getting Started

I finished lifting weights this morning and opened my email to find this!!! Our very first posting from Lacey Arbaugh on our Buckaroo Barbie Body Challenge! I love how her first piece of advice to us all is on setting goals. I am a HUGE believer in the power of goals and she breaks down what actually needs to happen in order for us to reach our weight/health goals, without having unrealistic expectations. Tonight I'm going to do what she suggest: I'm going to write my goals down for my body and take a "before" picture (dear God). I feel like we're starting this Body Challenge at exactly the perfect time. I know a lot of people whose New Year's Resolution includes losing weight and getting in shape and enough time has passed since New Years for this Challenge to be the perfect kick in the pants to get back on track. What are your specific goals for the Buckaroo Barbie Body Challenge?

Week 1:

Goals

The gym is packed, you just signed up for a fitness challenge, there are a million different machines, sweaty people are everywhere, and, of course, they are all looking at you. Panic mode sets in, so you walk to the bathroom to give yourself a pep talk. Then you walk right back out the door. Sound familiar? Don’t worry - this horror story has happened to us all!

The hardest part in setting a goal is taking the next step and committing. How do you commit to something you know absolutely nothing about? Well, that’s where I come in! I am going to break down the different fitness components into weeks. That way you are guaranteed to have the tools to succeed.

The big question is what goal are you going to set? Is it going to be dropping a pant size, losing 50 pounds, running 5 miles, training for an event, gaining muscle, fitting into a wedding dress, or lowering your blood pressure? You need to pinpoint it down to an exact goal to focus on. Now figure out a realistic time frame. If you come to me asking to lose 50 pounds in a month, I am going to flat out tell you that you will fail. Why set yourself up for something you can’t achieve?

Let me help you calculate a reasonable time frame. To actually burn one pound of fat, you need to burn an extra 3,500 calories that week. With that being said, a healthy range of fat loss per week is going to be 1-2 pounds of fat. Anything extra is going to be water. So, if your goal is to lose 50 pounds, it’s going to take you about 25-50 weeks or about 6-12 MONTHS!

Now as for gaining muscle, that’s a whole different ball game. This is where my frustrations come into play. As a woman, I don’t gain a lot of muscle. Women’s bodies do not have high amounts of testosterone compared to men’s. The average human can gain about a pound or two per month, some males even more. My goal to gain about 5-10 pounds of muscle is going to take me about 20-40 weeks or 5-10 months.

The next step is going to get the dreaded ‘before’ picture. This sounds miserable at the time but trust me. When you look back on your start picture, all of the hard work in-between is amazing. Take a front/side/back photo in clothes that will show your stomach and limbs. Ask a trainer at any local gym to get measurements and find your body fat percentage.

Set weekly goals and make sure to weigh in about every two weeks. Pick a day of the week to go to the gym at the same time every week. That way you know your body is staying consistent. Keep a journal with all of your stats and even start tracking your feelings and different moods. Next week you will start tracking your food, so it may be a good idea to start tracking your food now just to get into practice because this is going to be a huge role in reaching your new fitness goal!

8 comments:

This Is awesome!! I am so glad you are doing something like this! Me, my sister, and 2 of our friends are doing a weight loss challenge at our local community center and we have all lost around 10 pounds each. But we are kind of hitting a wall and really don't want to give up. We still have 7 weeks left and It's hard to keep motivated. But I really look forward to following you and Lacey's blog posts for inspiration!!